More evidence that Feathers is Dedolere?
We know from other material that witches become more 'aware' when a magical girl is high on grief levels.
What comes to Sabrina's mind when she's high on grief, when Dedolere would be able most aware?
Despair lances through your mind, a powerful, sledgehammer blow that rips right through you. Useless. Why did you ever imagine you could help? Now Mami and Homura are looking to you, and you're going to fail an-
You utter failure.
Did you really think so highly of yourself?
Do you hear that?
That's Mami, screaming your name. Shaking you.
You reduced her to this.
She would have been better dead than stuck to your side.
You break everything you touch. Everyone you touch.
You bend them to your will because you know better.
Put her in a gilded cage, where she'll be safe.
Because you want to protect her.
These are not your thoughts.
The thread during the time around the barrier incident was having a
serious toxicity issue, with constant morality flamewars. Sabrina wound up getting a huge uptick of grief shortly after meeting with Mami at school
just before the barrier incident.
So, we have Sabrina feeling wretched about how Mami was doing in the space between the first and second barriers created, with horribly conflicted feelings about her lack of morality in "doing possibly bad things to make things better". Who was quite clearly willing to ignore Sayaka's alienation in order to focus on cheering Mami up--
"So what did you do?" Sayaka asks impatiently.
"MECHA GUREN ZILLA LAGANN," you repeat patiently. "That's what."
"And what is Mecha Guren Zilla Lagann?" Sayaka asks.
You grin. "Mami?"
She shakes her head, smiling.
"Well, there you have it," you say.
Sayaka scowls at you, while Madoka giggles quietly. You turn your grin on Mami, finding her watching you already with a content smile. Her fingers squeeze your free hand, still clasped in hers under the table. You squeeze back - it's not a hug, but it's an affirmation.
Sabrina, who is (as best as everyone in the thread can tell) either Ultimate Kriemhild Gretchen or Walpurgisnacht made human, whose witch would obviously be able to control/communicate with other witches. Who had so recently thought--
Mami takes a step back, golden eyes still fixed on you, and you smile at her, internally fretting about her. You... maybe if she had someone else to be a mentor to? Maybe?
What does Feathers do? Oriko's precognition gets fucked up, and Sayaka is herded
directly into the path of becoming Mami's new kouhai.
Feathers breaks the things, the people she touches, bends them to her will because
she knows better. Because she wants to help, but all that she can do is
destroy.
EDIT: Oh, and? This happened in the chapter "Our Benefactor".
In Half-Life 2, "Our Benefactors" is the chapter where Gordon infiltrates an
enemy installation wherein he loses all of his other weapons
except for the gravity gun, which is then supercharged by the enemy technology.
In PMAS, "Our Benefactor" is the chapter where Sabrina heads into her barrier, which would be the home of Dedolere, and if Sabrina were to become Dedolere she would lose all her ability to do
anything else other than break things as she tries to fix them, but in the process becomes an ontological threat.
The shift from plural to singular? Dedolere, not The Combine. Dedolere is our benefactor.
